1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to plumbing installation in high rise construction projects, and more particularly to an improved method, system, and apparatus for optimally locating collecting and venting stacks for handling plumbing waste.
2. Description of the Related Art
A preliminary search of the prior art located the following United States patents which are believed to be representative of the present state of the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,766, issued Mar. 30, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,716, issued Sep. 14, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,541, issued Aug. 6, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 3,346,887, issued Oct. 17, 1967, U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,741, issued May 22, 1984, U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,164, issued Apr. 24, 1990, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,302, issued Jul. 15, 1975.
Collection and disposal of plumbing waste and the associated venting required to accompany waste collection are well established in the building construction art. Installation methods have typically followed these developments within the uniform building codes for specific venues.
High rise, multistoried dwelling structures are commonly designed with redundant or duplicative plumbing layouts for each floor of the structure. The waste from various plumbing fixtures for each layout are arranged to discharge into common waste stacks and are vented into common vent stacks.
Without regard for contract parameters, installation of high rise plumbing networks is by necessity labor intensive and by design materially wasteful. Typical high rise contract plans over specify the number of plumbing risers to accommodate inefficient fixture placement or orientation. These risers typically flow from floor to floor through individual cans. At the same time, inefficiencies in contract fixture design or placement eliminate the possibility of prefabricating plumbing risers which would readily reduce labor and material costs for plumbing waste and vent riser installation.
Plumbing risers in the art also present physical barriers for associated building trades. For example, the code requirements for post-tension structural cables in particular areas places a premium on floor surface area for laying out these post-tension cables. Excessive grouping of, or overlarge, plumbing stacks makes meeting the structural code requirements in such high rise projects more costly and time consuming. Similarly, use of individual cans for the plumbing stacks results in larger floor surface area devoted to the plumbing risers or stacks. The presence of excessive plumbing stacks also greatly increases the acoustic and fire-proofing cost requirements in related construction trades, resulting in overall higher project costs.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved method, system, and apparatus for combining waste and vent stacks into one system with a minimum footprint on the floor surface area.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide an improved method, system, and apparatus for prefabrication and installation of high rise plumbing waste and vent stacks which would reduce the labor and material costs for installation of the same.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide an improved method, system, and apparatus for combining waste and vent stacks which saves contract project bid costs for the plumbing trades.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an improved method, system, and apparatus for combining waste and vent stacks which reduces costs for acoustic requirements on high rise construction projects.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an improved method, system, and apparatus for combining waste and vent stacks which reduces costs for structural requirements on high rise construction projects.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an improved method, system, and apparatus for combining waste and vent stacks which reduces costs for fire proofing requirements on high rise construction projects.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to facilitate installation of auxiliary piping, electrical and other utility hangers within the construction project by elimination of redundant or unnecessary waste and vent stacks.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent to one skilled in the art according to the description of the invention as follows.